Skip to main content
Ch. 14 - Translation and Proteins

Chapter 14, Problem 9

How many different proteins, each with a unique amino acid sequence, can be constructed that have a length of five amino acids?

Verified Solution
Video duration:
1m
This video solution was recommended by our tutors as helpful for the problem above.
638
views
Was this helpful?

Video transcript

Hey everyone. Let's take a look at this question together. Each alpha chain of hemoglobin consists of 141 amino acids. What will be the approximate length of M. R. N. A. That will encode each alpha chain. Well we know that one amino acid is encoded by three nucleotides. And so we have 141 amino acids which we can see here multiplied by those three nucleotides per those amino acids And we end up with 423. However, this is not our final answer because we have to remember that we have those 423 nuclear tides. Plus we have one stop code on which we should know that that one stop code on is another three nucleotides. Because the stop code on sequence contains three nucleotides. So we have 423 plus those extra three that we get from the stop code on. Which means we have a total of 426 nucleotides. So answer choice C. Is the correct answer. Because when we take that 141 amino acids, we know that one amino acid isn't coded by three nuclear tides. So we multiply 1 41 by three and we get 4 23. Plus we have this one stop Conan which is three nuclear tides. So we end up with 426 nucleotides as our final answer which is answer choice C. The correct answer. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye